Life has been busy. At the end of July we took a small group of young people to Newday in the UK. The week after was an intensive week of meetings with a whole range of people which ended with one of our elders preaching his final sermon at Grace before returning to the UK. This week was in theory a lighter week but I ended yesterday in hospital needing IV fluids after badly cramping and dehydrating on a marathon. And today we baptise 3 people including our daughter. Who wants a dull life? Not me.

You Should Read These

Seven handpicked articles

1. Are You as Connected to the Church as You Want to Be?
2. Why have we stopped planting churches? Slowed, not stopped but the point & question stands
3. Horsewhipping Ruskin. Not too long ago I came across a quote that mentioned John Ruskin and I’d never heard of him. Did a bit of digging and turns out he was, um, interesting. Read this by Alan Jacobs and I think you’ll agree with his conclusions.
4. Why EV battery swapping matters
5. Crystal-shaped sauna rises from former industrial site in Sweden
6. The UK has worse mobile coverage than Romania. Why? We noticed exactly this. So much worse than in Sweden.
7. State Dept. Used AI-Generated Map that Mislabeled Every African Country

You Should Look At This

MANGROVES! Probably the most important ecosystem you don’t know about.

2026 Mangrove Photography Awards

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You Should Listen To This

I enjoyed singing this at Newday. Here’s the full playlist

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You Should Watch This

Stunning!

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This Week’s Postings

From last week

Newday 2026

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From The Archives

Ephesus plays an outsize role in a our understanding of New Testament life so…

What do we know about Ephesus?

Thanks for reading and do please share anything interesting in the comments.